OZONE HOLE (Poem)

It was a colorless, odorless, nontoxic, nonexplosive gas.
At ground level it did a lot of good.  It chilled food,
Kept it fresh; cleaned electronics; made insulation foam;
A wonder compound.

But it overstayed its welcome, slowly decaying, destroying
Another compound, also colorless, high in the stratosphere
Where it concentrated, doing a lot of good; sheltering us
From Sun's rays.

Ironically, this other gas does a lot of damage to nature
At ground level: an oxidant that harms plants, hurts lungs,
Stings eyes, creates photochemical smog.  Laws were past
To regulate it.

Humanity faced a dilemma of greater good. An established
Chlorofluorocarbon industry, an important way of life,
To balance against hypothetical ills from ozone destruction;
More ultraviolet radiation.

Skin-cancer, cataracts, food-chain destruction might result
If the one good gas was permitted to destroy the other good
Gas.  So society in 1987 limited the one good compound to
Save the other.


Originally  written in 1989 and dedicated to Richard E. Benedick, chief negotiator for the U.S. Revised, Ozone Hole was  recast in 20 line format for Poetic Voices in America, Fall 1996: Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum, p. 333. (Library of Congress: ISBN 0-923242-49-X)